Sewall (later Osgood) had crossed paths with the Thoreau brothers that summer while visiting her aunt in Concord, Massachusetts. Within a year, she had rejected both men’s offers of marriage-but she kept their gifts. From Henry, she received a collection of poems. From John, she received a pale pink opal. On Christmas Day in 1839, 17-year-old Ellen Sewall received gifts from two suitors who happened, unfortunately, to be brothers.
Photo illustration by Meilan Solly / Photos courtesy of American Antiquarian Society and Unsplash The fact that Osgood’s collection survives intact-or at all-is notable and perhaps inseparable from her lifelong friendship with a famous writer.
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